


Plague Doctor

by seems_legit



Category: Original Work
Genre: Death, End of the World, F/F, F/M, Gore, Road Trips, Survival, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:14:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22466272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seems_legit/pseuds/seems_legit
Summary: Maria didn't expect to be on this trip with her brothers and best friends. She also didn't expect the zombie apocolypse to start while she was a sophomore in highschool. Now she's gone from being a cheerleader to be a survivor in a world that doesn't want her to survive.
Kudos: 4





	1. Pep rally to apocolypse

**Author's Note:**

> Benny, a college sophomore, 20  
> Marc, senior, 18  
> Val, junior, 17  
> Maria, sophomore, 16  
> Akila, sophomore. 16  
> Quinn, sophomore, 15

The day started off normal. I woke up, got dressed, brushed my teeth, said hi to my parents and headed out the door with my brothers. Benito, or Benny, was the oldest, he drove. Marcelo sat in the passenger seat, bugging Benny with his choice of music since it was his turn to pick, he was the second oldest. Valentene, or Val, sat in the back with me, I was the youngest. We stopped at a drive through coffee place for breakfast with the extra money our mom had given us like we always do. And soon enough we were at the high school. The community college was beside it, Benny’s destination.

I stepped out of the truck, dodging Marc’s hand as he tried to mess with my hair. “Maria, you can’t hang out after cheer practice today, as soon as a I’m done with football were out, okay?” Benny asked, giving me the stern big brother look.

“No, she gets extra time. Rehearsals for me let out late today, and Marc has after school study group, remember? She can stay a little and talk to her friends.” Val stated, finishing off his croissant and managing to get his hands in my hair, messing with it.

Benny sighed, nodding. “Fine, but as soon as all of you are done, head to the truck.”

We all nodded, breaking off. I swung my bag over my shoulder, heading to the entrance of the school. “Maria!” I turned, seeing my friends Akilah and Quinn heading in my direction. “Hey, did you get a new hijab?” I asked, looking at the bright yellow head scarf that matched Akilah’s heels.

“I did. My mom took me shopping. I think it’s a way to keep herself calm and make me feel better. She’s in Malawi right now, visiting some relatives.” She said, messing with her hijab for a second.

“Why, is something wrong?” Quinn asked, the red head dodging a running kid in the hall as we walked. “Well, she says something big is going to happen soon, its just a really bad feeling at the moment, it’s got her on edge. She hated leaving Friday.”

Its not weird for Ms. Rahal to get worked up over a feeling, and it usually passes over a few days, so we didn’t dwell on it. We made it through first period English and second period Science. Things got weird during third period. I had asked to go to the bathroom and when I stepped into the hall all I saw were groups of kids heading in one direction. “what’s going on?” I asked a passing student. Dave Callahan, poor kid looked like death warmed up. “There’s a bug or something going around. We’re all headed to the nurse’s office.” I nodded, feeling bad for the nurse. And for these kids, but mostly for the nurse because she’s about to be swamped. It was weird, seeing almost twenty students headed to the nurse’s office at once. I should’ve paid more attention.

\-----

I was at home, sitting on the floor eating popcorn while my brothers took up the couch when things got weird again. We were watching tv, Marc in the kitchen getting more snacks when the TV flashed white.

**_“THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA HAS ISSUED A STATE OF EMERGENCY. PLEASE REMAIN INSIDE. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOMES.”_**

The electronic voice droned on, void of emotion but urgency and importance still somehow made it through it’s coding. I looked at my brothers, confused. Marc stood in the doorway, a look of confusion on his face.

“Where are mom and dad?” I asked, rising to my knees and facing my brothers.

“They had date night, they’re probably at the restaurant.” Benny provided, trying to sound comforting.

“we should call them, get them back home.” Valentene sounded worried, I was too.

Benny nodded, grabbing his phone. I thought back to what Akilah said about her mom. A bad feeling, something big happening, the students in the hall, and a state of emergency. Suddenly, I had an idea. “we should pack some bags, just in case, you know?” I said, looking up at my brothers. Marc’s brow furrowed, as did Benny’s when he got off the phone with dad.

“Why?” Marc asked, still standing in the doorway. “just in case something happens and we need to leave the house. Benny, what did mom and dad say?” I turned to him. “They heard about the announcement and are trying to make their way home, but the streets are busy.” He sighed, putting his phone down. I sighed too, getting off the floor and taking Benny’s spot on the couch while he stood beside Marcelo.

“Maria, you act like this is the apocalypse. We don’t need to pack bags.” Marc said, sounding scared. I was about to say something when the TV flashed white again.

_**“THE CDC HAS CONFIRMED THAT A CONTAGIOUS VIRUS IS GOING AROUND RIVERSIDE CALIFORNIA AND OTHER CITIES. PLEASE STAY INSIDE UNTIL WE HAVE MORE INFORMATION.”** _

I turned to Marc, “Okay, the apocalypse isn’t happening, huh? I’m going to pack a bag.” I headed off to my room, which was really just half of the attic that my parents put a wall in the middle of so Val and I could share.

I threw things into a duffel bag and a book bag; clothes, toothbrush and paste, some hygiene things, my laptop and charger, headphones, and an old radio that used to belong to my dad that he gave to me. I thought for a second before grabbing my piggy bank and smashing it, shoving all its contents into a Ziploc bag. I could hear the boy’s downstairs moving in and out of the house before I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.

_“We’re worried, my mom won’t be home for a while and Quinn’s grandma has disappeared, we’ve got bags packed and were wondering if we could stay with you? We’re already outside.”_

A text from Akilah. I headed downstairs, dropping my bags near the garage door and then opening the front door and there they were, looking scared. “Hey, come on, you can help me pack food.”

They came in, setting their bags down which Marc immediately took and went to place In probably the RV, it was the only vehicle we had that would hold us all and mom and dad when they got here, we had elongated the driveway just so it’d fit inside. We worked on packing canned foods and non-perishables for a while before I thought to head up to pack for mom and dad.

I was almost to the stairs when Benny came hurrying down and grabbed my arm, looking to be in more of a hurry. Val and Marc were also harried, grabbing the rest of the food bags and pushing Akilah and Quinn into the garage.

“Benito, what’s going on? I have to pack for mom and dad.” I asked, confused.

He shook his head, grabbing our jackets from the hooks by the door and shoving the RV keys in his pocket. “Don’t, dad called, they’ll meet us. We have to go, _now.”_

There was fear and urgency in his voice. “Benny, why do we have to go now?” I asked, only to jump when something hit the window. My head whipped around and I only had a second to register the human like shape at the window beside the front door.

Benny grabbed my arm again, tugging me out with him. I followed, only because there wasn’t much I could do. When we were in outside in the garage, I yanked my arm from him. He sighed, punching the button on the garage opener.

“Benito Antonio Garcia Sanchez you tell me what’s going on right this second or I swear-“I was cut short by an awful moaning sound, almost like someone in pain, dying slowly. I whipped my head around and screamed.

Standing there, skin ashy gray and peeling, stood Miss Diaz, our 50-year-old neighbor, covered in blood, and dead. Benny grabbed my arm again- it’s gonna bruise at some point- and yanked open the RV door and shoving me inside before following me in. He slid into the driver’s seat and hit the gas on the already cranked vehicle. It jerked backwards, slamming into Miss Diaz and kept going, backing out of the driveway and turning onto the street. Akilah, Quinn, and I screamed, not expecting it.

I watched as Benny drove away from our house, and away from my normal world.


	2. Our RV is the ferry to hell and my brother is the Ferryman

We saw more bodies as we drove through the town. They ranged in age. I saw the little boy I babysat on Fridays, the nice old man who ran the corner store. I shed a tear seeing Dave roam the streets. He was just alive this morning, third period.

“Benny, where are we meeting mom and dad?” Marc asked quietly, sitting in the passenger seat upfront.

“Off the Highway, just out of the city.” Benny answered.

I sat curled up on a bench at the table, Valente beside me and Akilah and Quinn across from us. “So, you’re telling me,” Quinn started, pushing her glasses up her nose, “That the zombie apocalypse, something that only happens in movies and video games, is happening _now?_ In our lifetime? This can’t be happening, it’s got to be a prank, or maybe they’re filming a movie.” She said, shaking her head before flinching when a body threw itself at the RV window, only for Benny to speed up.

“They would tell us if it was a movie, they wouldn’t just do this. This is dangerous, if it was a movie they’d make it safe, and they would confine it to one area.” Akilah sighed, fear and uncertainty in her voice.

I stood up, finding my bookbag from the pile and dug through it, quickly finding dads old satellite radio. I walked back to the table, setting the radio down on it and sitting back down beside Val on the bench. “Quinn, go ahead and pull up the news while I get this thing to the right channel.”

She nodded. It didn’t take long for her to find several articles. “there are reports happening all over the U.S.” She said, scrolling through articles. “It started mainly in New York last night, people falling sick. But then they started changing around late afternoon.” Her face grew pale with each article.

“So, this has been going on for 24 hours and no one knew?” Val asked, his voice angry.

“They kept it under wraps until the bodies changed and it started spreading, probably thought they could control it.” Marc spoke from upfront, reading some more science-based articles on what was happening.

“I’ve got the radio up.” I announced. I turned it up, hopeful to hear something, only to be disappointed to hear the same message from the TV earlier playing. I turned the radio back down, letting the message drone on in the background. We sat in silence for a while, hitting the turn that exits the city. Benny’s phone rang and he passed it to Marc.

“Hello? Yeah, he’s driving. Were on our way, we took the RV and we have Quinn and Akilah with us. Wait- no, no mom what do you mean? Yeah, we figured out they’re like zombies- what do you mean they _are_ Zombies? Is Dad okay? What happened? That’s not good…. Yeah, we just exited the city, we’ll meet you at the gas station.” He hung up, looking shaken.

He was silent for a while before Benny spoke. “Marc? Marcelo, talk to me buddy, what did mom say?” He asked, glancing at Marc occasionally.

“Um, she said that everyone thought they were just bodies, but then they got violent, biting and scratching others. They _killed_ some people. Mom said that the ones who got bit started acting weird, she thinks they turned into the zombies.”

“What about Dad? You mentioned him in the call.” Val asked, one of his hands gripping mine, the other gripping the padding on the bench.

“He’s fine, he used the crowbar in the trunk of the car to fight a few off. Mom said they’re both safe, they’re headed to the Shell Gas Station just right before the highway, the one we use when we go on trips.” Marc exhaled, leaning back in his seat.

Val and I sighed in unison, happy that our parents were safe. “So is that where we’re headed?” I asked, laying my head on Val’s shoulder, suddenly exhausted from today’s events.

“Unless you want us to stop so close to the city and end up like a zombie, yeah.” Benny commented, sighing.

“Okay, _sorry_ for asking question I guess.” I huffed, sitting up straight.

Benny sighed again. “I’m sorry Mari, I’m just stressed. I’m the oldest until we meet with mom and dad.”

I stayed quiet, staring out the window at the dark road. The moon was nonexistent, making everything more ominous.

It was silent for a while, before Akilah spoke up. “We should call them something.” She said.

“Them?” Marc looked back at her past the little curtain that separated the front and main area of the RV.

“The zombies. I mean, they _were_ alive very recently, zombies just sounds disrespectful.” She shrugged, twiddling with her hijab.

“Well, from what I’ve read, they’re also not like typical zombies. Some are fast, like, they can run. Some are less violent, and some are purely feral. And from all the movies and stuff that we’ve seen, there aren’t many things to call them.” Quinn rested her elbows on the table, a calculating look crossing her face.

“What about Walkers? Or Corpses?” Val suggested, finally joining in on the conversation.

“Corpse sounds disrespectful!” Akilah protested.”

After a few minutes of arguing, we decided on corpses, just in time too, the gas station was just ahead. We pulled in, spotting mom and dad’s car by the store. The lights in it were on, bit it was deserted. We checked around from the windows for a second before hopping out one by one.

“Mami! Papi!” I called, running to my parents as they exited the car. My dad smiled, hugging me. Marc, Val, Benny, and I gathered around them as Quinn and Akilah went inside for snacks.

It felt like a normal road trip, even though I knew it wasn’t. We stood talking for a bit, the sound of our chatter and the engines covering up the sound of footsteps coming up. Quinn and Aki were already inside the RV by the time we heard them, the running, stomping, odd gait of the people running up to us. Only they weren’t people. And we didn’t notice until one of them had torn a chunk out of Dad’s neck.

Blood was everywhere, especially on me as I was closest. It took a moment to settle in before we were all screaming. Benny grabbed me, and I grabbed mom, holding on as I was dragged to the RV. We were almost there when we were met with resistance. I whipped my head around, only to scream as I saw the corpse holding on to my mom, teeth in her arm and dead eyes staring at me.

“Mami! Mami fight it! Please!” I kept screaming, both Spanish and English spilling out of my mouth. She screamed too, but not like me.

“Baby let go! Maria please let go! Get inside! Be safe please! Benito please keep her safe! Keep them safe!” she kept screaming. Tears were running down her face, which was scrunched up in pain even as she screamed. Despite her words, she had a death grip on my hand, and I knew she didn’t want to let go.

Benny kept pulling on me, until finally, he was able to wrench my hand from our mothers. I kept screaming her name until I was shoved into the RV, kicking and screaming, my eyes so filled with tears that I could barely see her. The door was slammed shut and soon Benny was at the wheel. I banged on the window as Val tried to hold be back, screaming for my mother as she kept yelling that she loved us.

Those were the last words I ever heard her say, and the last time I saw her alive.

It was official, my old life had ended, and my new one was born in the middle of the fucking zombie apocalypse, with a Corpse chewing on my mother’s arm.


	3. Travel plans gone awry

It's been about a month and a half since all of this has started. We stayed with the RV, even though it’s a little hard to navigate with all of the abandoned vehicles on the road, and also found a pretty nice small van with a little gas left in it and hitched it to the back of the RV for emergency purposes. Gas hasn’t been too much of a problem, we’ve been siphoning it from other vehicles and storing it in containers under the RV. While we have been taking breaks, we’ve also made our way to Oregon, which is where we’re resting now, in the middle of an abandoned RV park. 

“Okay, who’s turn is it to refill the RV water reserves?” Benny walks up to Marc and I sitting by the campfire cooking. 

“Technically it’s Akilah’s turn but she’s helping Quinn gather fish.” I inform him, pulling out a pot while Marc opens our last can of black-eyed peas. Not a favorite, even if we have a little salt and pepper to go with them. 

He sighs, turning to walk away. He kicks Val as he passes, “Water duty for you bud.” He says, on his way to gather wood. 

Val groans, standing up from dirt drawings. “Why me?” 

I snicker as Marc passes me some deer meat to season. “You’re the only one without a job to do. Aki and Quinn are fishing, Marc and I are cooking, and Benny’s been keeping up maintenance. You’ve been drawing in the dirt.” I shrug. 

“I’m waiting for the fish to get back so I can skin them.” He groans again, gathering up the water jugs. 

Marc sighs, adding some seasoned meat to a hot skillet that's resting on the fire coals, “Don’t complain, just get the water. The girls can skin the fish themselves.” Val just groans a third time before heading out to gather and purify the water, a task for which I'm glad it's not my turn because it takes forever to do. 

An hour later we found ourselves with skinned fish currently beginning to freeze in the RV freezer, some full bellies, and Val on his third round of water collection. 

“After this we should have enough water, and we can leave tomorrow morning once it's all been filtered. We’ve done well with rationing and I'd like to keep it that way. And I know we headed up the map instead of across like we planned, but Oregon had the least number of Corpses that we know of, so tomorrow we’ll pack up and head to Minnesota like we planned.” Benny sighed, concentrating on the map in front of him. The sun was dying so we had our lanterns set up. 

Quinn stood up and moved, going to sit beside him. “We should stop at all the mini safe spaces along the way, and if something comes up, there's larger safe town in Wyoming.” she pointed to a spot on the map. “They're talking about it on the radio all the time. It's in Lander.” Benny, nodded, circling the town before rolling the map up. 

“If all else fails we can nest there for a while.” 

Marc and I begin to pack up, taking the dirty dishes down to the river where Val is to clean them. The water isn't the cleanest, but it is moving, and we’ve got soap. 

“So, what's the plan?” Val asks, setting up the last of the water to purify. It’s 8 jugs in total, enough to refill the bit we lost. 

“Leave in the morning, head to Minnesota, small stop in Wyoming.” Marc fills him in. 

He hums in acknowledgement and we continue our work in silence. None of this is an ideal situation to live in, but it does make us closer to each other, even if involuntarily. 

Morning comes and we’re packed and ready to go, the water refilled and a fall breakfast of stale pop tarts in our bellies. I’m sitting up front with Benny this time, it's not that we switch off and on I just like napping in the front seat. We’re passing through Sisters when Benny slams on the breaks and I’m jolted awake. 

“What?! Why'd you do that?” I asked, looking at my brother like he was crazy. 

“People.” is all he says. 

I look up and sure enough, three people are standing by a truck and a few cars littering the road. 

“Are we going to help them?” Marc asks, he's standing behind the driver seat. “We don’t know if they're dangerous or not.” Quinn supplies from her spot behind me. 

“Well they look about our age, so maybe they're just in trouble.” I state, a little unsure. Benny sighs and drives up to them and I was right, the look young, around Benny's age. 

He stops and we all pile out, a little cautious of the strangers. There are two girls and a guy, all looking unsure as the guy stares under the hood of the truck. 

“Need help?” I call, we’re close, but not close enough for a surprise attack. 

They look up in shock before one of the girls, a blonde, smiles. “Please! We broke down almost an hour ago and luckily, we haven't run into anything. But any help you can offer would be amazing!” She walks up to us and I can instantly tell she's not a threat. 

Benny nods and motions for Val to help him check out the truck. The other girl, a brunette with short hair, hops off the back of the truck. 

“Hi, I’m Taylor, and this is Avery. The guy is Dixon,” She motions to the man in front of the truck who’s working with my brothers, “We’re from Mississippi, what about you guys?” she asked, smiling politely. 

Marc whistles, “Mississippi? That’s far. We’re from California.” 

Taylor laughs a little. “Yeah, it's a bit far, but we’re mainly just traveling, on the hunt for safe spots.” 

We talk for a bit, my brothers helping fix their truck and after it’s just the group of us mingling in the road. 

“So, it’s just you guys? No one else in your group?” Avery asks, looking at her two companions. 

I nod, “We haven’t really seen many others, so we haven't really thought about more people-” I'm cut off by a sound we’re all too familiar with. We all whip around and there, moving in quickly, is a hoard. 

“though we may be looking to expand.” Benny says, looking at the other three before making a split decision. 

“Val, you take the girls, Marc, Dixon, and I will take the truck.” Val nods and we all split, piling into our separate vehicles and prepare to weave through the mess of cars in front of us.


End file.
